Marillion - Misplaced Childhood

MARILLION

MISPLACED CHILDHOOD (1998)

  1. Pseudo Silk Kimono
  2. Kayleigh
  3. Lavender
  4. Bitter Suite
  5. Heart Of Lothian
  6. Waterhole
  7. Lords Of The Backstage
  8. Blind Curve
  9. Childhoods End?
10. White Feather

MARILLION

MISPLACED CHILDHOOD

1. PSEUDO SILK KIMONO

Huddled in the safety of a pseudo silk kimono
Wearing bracelets of smoke, naked of understanding
Nicotine smears, long, long dried tears, invisible tears
Safe in my own words, learning from my own words
Cruel joke, cruel joke

Huddled in the safety of a pseudo silk kimono
A morning mare rides in the starless shutters of my eyes
The spirit of a misplaced childhood is rising
To speak his mind
To this orphan of heartbreak, disillusioned and scorned
A refugee, refugee

Safe in the sanctuary, safe.

2. KAYLEIGH

Do you remember
Chalk hearts melting on a playground wall?
Do you remember
Dawn escapes from moonwashed college halls?
Do you remember
The cherry blossom in the market square?
Do you remember
I thought it was confetti in our hair
By the way, didn't I break your heart?
Please excuse me, I never meant to break your heart
So sorry, I never meant to break your heart
But you broke mine

Kayleigh, is it too late to say I'm sorry
And Kayleigh, could we get it together again
I can't go on pretending that it came to a natural end
Kayleigh, I never thought I'd miss you
And Kayleigh, I've hoped that we'd always be friends
We said our love would last forever
So how did it come to this bitter end

Do you remember
Barefoot on the lawn with shooting stars
Do you remember
Loving on the floor in Belsize Park
Do you remember
Dancing in stilettos in the snow
Do you remember
You never understood I had to go
By the way, didn't I break your heart?
Please excuse me, I never meant to break your heart
So sorry, I never meant to break your heart
But you broke mine

Kayleigh, I just wanna say I'm sorry
But Kayleigh, I'm too scared to pick up the phone
To hear you've found another lover
To patch up our broken home
Kayleigh, I'm still trying to write that love song
Kayleigh, it's more important to me now you're gone
Maybe it will prove that we were right
Or it'll prove that I was wrong.

3. LAVENDER

I was walking in the park, dreaming of a spark
When I heard the sprinklers whisper
Shimmer in the haze of summer lawns
Then I heard the children singing
They were running through the rainbows
They were singing a song for you
Well it seemed to be a song for you
The one I wanted to write for you, for you, you

Lavenders blue, dilly dilly, lavenders green
When I am king, dilly dilly, you will be queen
A penny for your thoughts, my dear
A penny for your thoughts, my dear
I.O.U. for your love
I.O.U. for your love

Lavenders green, dilly dilly, lavenders blue
When you love me, dilly dilly, I will love you
A penny for your thoughts, my dear
A penny for your thoughts, my dear
I.O.U. for your love
I.O.U. for your love
For your love
For your love
For your love.

  4. BITTER SUITE

      I    BRIEF ENCOUNTER

A spider wanders aimlessly within the warmth of a shadow
Not the regal creature of border caves
But the poor, misguided, directionless familiar
Of some obscure Scottish poet

The mist crawls from the canal
Like some primordial phantom of romance
To curl, under a cascade of neon pollen
While I sit tied to the phone like an expectant father
Your carnation will rot in a vase

      II    LOST WEEKEND

A train sleeps in a siding
The driver guzzles another can of lager, lager
To wash away the memories of a Friday night down at the club

She was a wallflower at sixteen
She'll be a wallflower at thirty-four
Her mother called her beautiful
Her daddy said: "A whore"

      III    BLUE ANGEL

The sky was bible black in Lyon
When I met the Magdalene
She was paralysed in a streetlight
She refused to give her name

And to the ring of violet bruises
They were pinned upon her arm
Two hundred Francs for sanctuary and she led me by the hand
To a room of dancing shadows
Where all the heartache disappears
And from the glowing tongues of candles
I heard her whisper in my ear
"J'entend ton coeur"
"J'entend ton coeur"
I can hear your heart
I can hear your heart
I can hear your heart
Hear your heart
I can hear your heart

      IV    MISPLACED RENDEZVOUS

It's getting late
For scribbling and scratching on the paper
Something's gonna give under this pressure
And the cracks are already beginning to show
It's too late
The weekend career girl never boarded the plane
They said this could never happen again
Oh, so wrong, so wrong

This time, it seems to be another misplaced rendezvous
This time, it's looking like another misplaced rendezvous
With you
The parallel of you, you

      V    WINDSWEPT THUMB

On the outskirts of nowhere
On the ringroad to somewhere
On the verge of indecision
I'll always take the roundabout way
Waiting on the rain
For I was born with a habit, from a sign
The habit of a windswept thumb
And the sign of the rain
Rain on me, rain
It's started raining
It's started raining
It's started raining
It's started raining
It's started raining
It's started raining
It's started raining.

  5. HEART OF LOTHIAN

      I    WIDE BOY

Wide boys, wide boys, wide boys
Born with hearts of Lothian
Wide boys, wide boys
Born with hearts of Lothian
Wide boys, we were wide boys
Born with hearts of Lothian
These hearts of Lothian

It's six o'clock in the tower blocks
The stalagmites of culture shock
Culture shock
And the trippers of the light fantastic, bow down, hoedown
Spray their pheremones on this perfume uniform

And anarchy smiles in the Royal Mile
And we're waiting on the slyboys, flyboys, wideboys
Rootin’, tootin’ Cowboys
Lucky little ladies at the watering hole
They'll score the Friday night goals
I was born with a heart of Lothian
I was born with a heart of Lothian
I was born with a heart of Lothian
With a heart of Lothian

      II    CURTAIN CALL

And the man from the magazine
Wants another shot of you all curled up
'Cause you look like an actor in a movie show
But you're feeling like a wino in a parking lot
How did I get here anyway?
Do we really need a playback of the show?
'Cause the wideboy wants to head for the watering hole
Watering hole, watering hole
Let's go

And the man in the mirror has sad eyes.

6. WATERHOLE (Expresso Bongo)

When taxis gather in mock solemnity
Funeral hearses court the death of virginity
Was it paradise lost or paradise found?
Did we gain respect or were we holding ground?
You had found true love or so you believe
And the wide boys tattoo your hearts upon their sleeves

So when you think it's time to go
When you think it's time to go
Don't be surprised, the heroes never show

And the patter merchants selling false impressions
Tipping eyes at the waitress with American expressions
Tie angels to the bar with sweet Martini's and their charms
They're lying on every word and every arm
They're turning down their noses to the best lines
And the cheap wines
And the wide boys
They wear their lovebites for their crimes

So when you think it's time to go
When you think it's time to go
Don't be surprised, the heroes never show.

7. LORDS OF THE BACKSTAGE

A love song with no validity
Pretend you never meant that much to me
Numb, a valium child
Bored by meaningless collisions
A lonely stretch of headlight, diamonds trapped in black ice
A mirror cracked along the white lines

I just wanted you to be the first one
I just wanted you to be the first one
Ashes are burning, burning
Ashes are burning, burning

A lifestyle with no simplicity
But I'm not asking for your sympathy
Talk, we never could talk
Distanced by all that was between us
A lord of the backstage, a creature of language
I'm so far out and I'm too far in

I just wanted you to be the first one
I just wanted you to be the first one
Bridges are burning, burning
Bridges are burning, burning
Now, now, now, now, now.

  8. BLIND CURVE

      I    VOCAL UNDER A BLOODLIGHT

"Last night you said I was cold, untouchable
A lonely piece of action from another town
I just want to be free, I'm happy to be lonely
Can't you stay away?
Just leave me alone with my thoughts
Just a runaway, oh, just a runaway
I'm saving myself"

      II    PASSING STRANGERS

"Strung out under a necklace of carnival lights
Cold moon, held on the crest of the night
I'm too tired to fight

So now we're passing strangers at single tables
Still trying to get over
Still trying to write love songs for passing strangers
All those passing strangers

And the twinkling lies, all those twinkling lies
Sparkle with the wet ink on the paper"

      III    MYLO

"Oh, I remember Toronto when Mylo went down
And we sat and we cried on the phone
I never felt so alone
He was the first of our own
Some of us go down in a blaze of obscurity
Some of us go down in a haze of publicity
The price of infamy, the edge of insanity

Another Holiday Inn, another temporary home
And an interviewer threatened me with a microphone
"Talk to me, won’t you tell me your story"

And so I talked about conscience and I talked about pain
And he looked out the window and it started to rain
I thought: "Maybe I've already gone crazy"
And so I reached for a bottle and he reached for the door
And I picked up the sleeping pills crushed in the floor
Inviting me to casual obscenity"

      IV    PERIMETER WALK

"It would be incredible
If we could retrace all the times that we lived here
All the collisions
Wasted, I've never been so wasted
I've never been this far out before

Perimeter walk
There's a presence here
I feel could have been ancient
I could have been mystical

There's a presence
A childhood, my childhood
My childhood, childhood, a misplaced childhood
My childhood, childhood, a misplaced childhood
Give it back to me, give it back to me
A childhood, the childhood, the childhood
The childhood, the childhood
Oh please, give it back to me"

      V    THRESHOLD

"I saw a war widow in a laundrette
Washing the memories from her husband's clothes
She had medals pinned to a threadbare greatcoat
A lump in her throat with cemetery eyes
I see convoys curbcrawling West German Autobahns
Trying to pick up a war
They're gonna even the score
Oh, I can't take any more

I see black flags on factories
Soup ladles poised on the lips of the poor
I see children with vacant stares
Destined for rape in the alleyways
Does anybody care, I can't take any more!
Should we say goodbye?

I see priests, politicians
The heroes in black plastic body-bags under nations' flags
I see children pleading with outstretched hands
Drenched in napalm, this is no Vietnam

I can't take any more, should we say goodbye
How can we justify?
They call us civilised!"

9. CHILDHOODS END?

And it was morning
And I found myself mourning
For a childhood that I thought had disappeared
I looked out the window
And I saw a magpie in the rainbow, the rain had gone
I'm not alone, I turned to the mirror
I saw you, the child, that once loved
The child before they broke his heart
Our heart, the heart that I believed was lost

Hey you, surprised?
More than surprised to find the answers to the questions
Were always in your own eyes
Do you realise that you give it on back to her?
But that would only be retraced
In all the problems that you ever knew
So untrue
For she's got to carry on with her life
And you've got to carry on with yours

So I see it's me, I can do anything
And still the child
'Cause the only thing misplaced was direction
And I found direction
There is no Childhood's End
There is no Childhood's End
'Cause you are my childhood friend
'Cause you are my childhood friend
Oh, lead me on

Hey you, you've survived
Now you've arrived
To be reborn in the shadow of the magpie
Now you realise, that you've got to get out of here
You've found the leading light of destiny
Burning in the ashes of your memory
You wanna change the world
You'd resigned yourself to die a broken rebel
But that was looking backward
Now you've found the light

You, the child that once loved
The child before they broke his heart
Our heart, the heart that I believed was lost
So it's me I see, I can do anything
I'm still the child
'Cause the only thing misplaced was direction
And I found direction
There is no childhood's end
There is no childhood's end
There is no childhood's end
I am your childhood friend
Oh, lead me on.

10. WHITE FEATHER

When I hit the streets back in '81
With a heart and a gown and a poet's crown
I felt barbed wire kisses and icicle tears
Wearing at me for all these years
I saw political intrigue, political lies
Going to wipe those smiles of self-satisfaction
From their eyes

I will wear your white feather
I will carry your white flag
I will swear I have no nation
But I'm proud to own my heart

I will wear your white feather
I will carry your white flag
I will swear I have no nation
But I'm proud to own my heart
My heart, my heart
This is my heart

We don't need your uniforms
We have no disguise
Divided we stand, together we rise

Tell all the children
Tell all the children
Tell your children
All your children

We will wear your white feathers
Tell all the children
We will carry your white flags
Tell all the children
We will swear we have no nation
Tell your children
But we're proud to own our hearts
All your children
We will wear your white feathers
Tell all the children
We will carry your white flags
Tell all the children
We will swear we have no nation
Tell your children
But we're proud to own our hearts
All your children
Tell all the children
Our hearts
Tell all the children
These are our hearts
Tell your children
All your children

Tell all the children
Tell all the children

You can feel our hearts away
Tell your children
All your children

I can walk away
Tell all the children
I can walk away
Tell all the children
Go on, go on, go on, go on
Tell your children
All your children.

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